


213. lips painted in gold

by piggy09



Series: The Sestre Daily Drabble Project [163]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 15:03:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8805478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09
Summary: Teenage proclones Sarah and Helena attempt to figure out how makeup works but mostly use this as an excuse to be codependent.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in the [Project Leto](http://archiveofourown.org/series/243907) 'verse, and will likely be SOMEWHAT CONFUSING if you haven't read that one.

“I don’t understand why we bought this one,” Helena says, rolling the tube of lipstick between her fingers. It has gold flecks; it’s far too ostentatious for day-to-day, and they never need _more_ ornamentation at parties.

“Because the DYAD paid,” Sarah says, and smirks. Her lips are reddened – lipstick put on and removed, lip gloss put on and removed. The process of remaking yourself is slow. Even if you have help at it.

Helena smiles at the lipstick, twists it out of its tube and rubs it over the back of her hand. Suddenly her skins is smeared blood-red, flecked with gold. She wonders if it’s real. Doubts it. Dismisses the idea. “Budget reports,” she says.

“Aldous could find a way to justify it, I’m sure.”

“I’d like to see him try.”

“We’re the most feminine-presenting,” Sarah says, smiling a little bit as she warms to her subject. “It’s an experiment in the spectrum of femininity. He’s encouraging, the – mm—”

“Repercussions of the nature-nurture debate.”

“ _Precisely_ what I meant,” Sarah says, and she leans across the space between them and picks up Helena’s hand. Tilts it back and forth. Then she licks her thumb and wipes some of it off; it stains her thumb red, just on the pad of it. Helena’s skin slowly gets clean as she allows her sister’s ministrations. She reaches out her other hand and puts it on Sarah’s knee. _I love you_ , she thinks. She doesn’t say it out loud, but she knows that Sarah knows.

“We’ll find it,” Sarah says. Pauses. “Us.”

“I know.” I trust you. Helena rubs her thumb in a circle and then lifts her hand, trails her fingers over the pile of discarded makeup products on the bed. If they wanted to, they could pick them all up and hurl them one-by-one against the wall. They’d splatter, they’d stain, and then someone would come by when the two of them were gone and clean it up. The two of them would never have to suffer a consequence for it. It makes Helena – not happy, not exactly, but something like it. Something almost there. Sarah would know, she’s certain, what the word for it is.

She stops thinking about it when Sarah’s fingers curl through her hair, tuck strands of it behind her ear. She looks up to see Sarah smiling at her, something lopsided and sincere enough to be private. Sarah has never smiled like this at anyone else. Helena tilts her head against her sister’s hand, her skin against her skin.

“There you are,” Sarah says, still with that lopsided smile. “You left me.”

“I’d never,” Helena says desperately.

“What were you thinking about?”

“You know.”

“Tell me anyways.”

“Ruining it,” Helena says. It’s something she never would have said out loud before, but they are in their own bedroom now and there’s a sort of freedom in it. An almost-freedom.

Sarah hums, keeps coming her fingers through Helena’s hair. “We don’t need to,” she says. “It’ll be ours.”

“I know,” Helena whispers. She wants it. She wants to take the whole world and hold it in her hands, as long as those hands are also her sister’s hands. She wants to own the whole world, for Sarah. All of it for Sarah. The neck of the world snapping between her hands like a twig. _For you_ , she’d say, _only for you_ , and Sarah would say _I know_ and mean it. And they would be perfect.

She looks up and meets Sarah’s eyes and sees herself reflected. _For you_ , Sarah says without speaking. _For you_ , Helena says without voice. Sarah’s hand in Helena’s hair, one infinitesimal instant from petting it or pulling it all out.

“Hand me the eyeshadow palette,” Sarah says, without breaking eye contact. It’s closer to Sarah’s knee; they both know it. Helena reaches down anyways, without looking away, fumbles across the bedspread and finds it. Finally she looks away, and down, and to Sarah’s hand – it’s open, waiting, expectant, knowing for a fact that Helena will give her what she asked for.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please kudos + comment if you enjoyed! :)


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